Avarekalu-Menthya soppina bhaath - a single pot rice dish needing no pre-made powders

Before I forget to wish you all, Happy Sri Rama Navami to all my readers celebrating the birth of Lord Rama. By the time I got to writing this post, Ramanavami for 2015 had already slid into the past making me late again with my wishes. But as I always say, "better late than never". Hope you all had a good celebration, ours was simple with kosambari, panaka & hesaru bele payasa. Filling, very satisfying and saatvik :-).

On my not posting regularly, I won't even go there :-(.  I was thinking yesterday of making a really catchy poster to adorn my home page and say something to the effect of, "Gone missing, will be back as soon as life slows down a teeny bit" but then I thought if I have the time to think up and make up fancy posters, I might as well sit myself down and write the posts for some of the recipes that have been languishing in the draft folder for a while now. Ironically enough, I was attending a 3 day talk last weekend about life management and managing time was the topic of day-1 :-).

Here I am with a family favorite and extremely easy to cook up, one pot rice dish that brings together 2 of my favorite ingredients - fresh fenugreek leaves for its characteristic fragrance & taste and avarekalu (papdi lilva) for the love of beans :-). I have another delicious version of rice made with fenugreek leaves that uses Vangibhaath powder, check it out here if interested.

I believe I have already professed my love for avarekalu and written my ode to this humble beans many times over on the blog, here, here and here. Recently a reader from Michigan reached out to ask some questions about averekalu and I felt as glad as he did when he wrote back a week or so later to say he did find them in his local grocery store and made yummy dishes with it. It feels good to come across folks with similar tastes and I am glad my little posts spread some (avarekalu) love to others living away from home.

Nammamma made this version of the bhaath towards the end of avarekalu season when the beans would be mature and plump but not very juicy or fragrant. Back home in Mysore, the beans would first announce their arrive with that very distinct fragrance and as soon you picked them, your hands would undoubtedly be coated with a thin layer of sticky substance (we called it 'sone' in kannada, not sure if it has a name in other languages) which was all part of the avarekalu experience. Adding methi or fenugreek leaves perfectly complements the flavor in this rice. I made this rice recently knowing fully well that my few weeks of avarekalu enjoyment was coming to an end here.

This dish does not need any pre-made spice powders and is very easy to prepare. It has carbs(rice), protiens (beans), nutrients & flavor (fenugreek leaves) and hence makes a perfectly wholesome meal. This can be done in a single vessel from start to end - less cleaning, less wastage and environment friendly :-)

What do you need to make averekalu-menthya bhaath? 
2 packed cups of fresh fenugreen leaves
1-1.5 cups avarekalu (Papdi lilva)
2 cups rice (use sona masoori preferably)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 Tsp cumin
1 inch piece of ginger
1 inch piece of cinnamon
2 cloves
4-6 black pepper corns
3-4 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 Tsp salt (Adjust to taste)
2 Tbsp oil

How do you make averekalu-menthya soppina bhaath?

• Chop washed fenugreek leaves. 
• Wash and soak rice for about 20 minutes (this speeds up the cooking process)
• Take a heavy bottom pan (or pressure cooker) and heat it on medium heat. 
• Add cinnamon, black pepper & cloves and roast for about a minute until they warm up and become fragrant. Take them aside and let cool. 
• Make a rough powder of the spices when cool, add ginger, green chilies and coconut to the blender jar, use 1/4 cup water and grind into a fine mixture. 
• Add 1 tbsp oil into the pan (or cooker) and let it heat up. 
• Add cumin and when it sizzles, add chopped onion and let it sweat lightly.
• Add chopped fenugreek leaves and fry until they wilt, 2-3 minutes. 
• Add the averekalu (or other beans you choose) to the pan and mix it with the fenugreek leaves. 
• Add salt and mix them together. 
• Add the ground masala mixture and let it cook for just a minute. 

• Taste and adjust salt if needed. 
• Drain all the water from the soaked rice and add it to the pan. 
• I use 1:2 (rice:water) ratio for making these rice preparations, and add 3 & 3/4 cup (discount 1/4 cup used for grinding) water into the pan. 
• Let it come to a boil. 

• Close the pressure pan with the weight and cook it for 3 whistles. 
• If you like to open cook, reduce heat to low, cover the pan and cook until rice is soft. 
• Let it stand until it is warm. 

• Fluff it gently with a spoon, and serve it warm with any kind chips, fryums or yogurt based raita. 

Notes: 

• You can precook rice (make sure you use the right amount of water to get fluffy rice) and mix the rest of the ingredients, I think the flavor is more enhanced when you cook them all together. 
• If you don't get avarekalu, replace it with mutter or green peas, frozen lima beans or other beans you prefer. 
• The spice comes from the black pepper, ginger & green chilies - adjust them to your liking. 

Palak paneer - ever green choice in Indian restuarants

A big apology for being MIA (missing in action) for the past 2 weeks. Totally unplanned and the longest I have stayed away from the blog without a valid excuse (such as travel, sickness etc). So what is my invalid excuse this time? Been busy :-), yep truly busy but more than that I find that my brain is scattered all over the place not letting me sit and focus on the blog. I keep adding drafts and pictures to my folders but when I am done with work and cooking in the evening, I am just exhausted to create something fresh :-(. The first week went by ok since I have been doing a weekly post anyway, but the second week was a guilt trip and every day I would tell myself that I would sit down and nurture my blog baby but when I did sit down, I would be looking into an empty brain too tired to generate any thoughts. I would glare at the pictures, write a title and then feel sorry for myself and shut the laptop down :-). Since it wasn't healthy for me, I finally told myself not to worry but enjoy the break period. It wasn't like I lost interest in cooking but it was just finding the energy to blog about it. Now after 2 weeks, I am back again (with no promises to do this daily or multiple times a week, but as frequently as I am able to write). And I do miss visiting my favorite blogs, I will be there soon.

So all this MIA act of mine needs a really inviting dish as a come back vehicle, don't you think so? What I have today is an extremely popular side dish in Indian restaurants. And there are umpteen number of variations and family recipes out there, so why am I (a very South Indian from the south of India) blogging about this very common North Indian subzi? I think I have some pearls of wisdom, having (forced to) eaten it every time from rustic, road side dhabas to fancy restaurants with DD since she LOVES it :-). I have enjoyed some versions, hated some, been indifferent to some others. What makes this simple dish a winner? Just a few things to keep in mind as you make it and I will share all I know here. Food is as good as it looks, right? Retain and lock in that naturally vibrant green color for an appetizing subzi (curry) and keep the spices to a minimum to enjoy the inherent taste of the greens.  Freshness of paneer matters a lot, so get good quality paneer from the store or make some at home and here is how.

I made a lot of paneer at home yesterday. BH has a small coffee grinder and powders the seeds every morning and puts it in to the filter for his morning cuppa. He drank his coffee this way for years since we came here and he claimed it was the best coffee. Since we came back from India last month, he started complaining that it didn't taste as good or anything close to his mom's filter kaapi (Indian coffee). Initially I dismissed it as homesickness and then said his taste buds had taken a flight given all the fever and throat infections we fought for a couple of weeks but things didn't improve. And all of sudden a week back, he declared that he was going to stop drinking coffee (!), while he is not an addict, he definitely enjoyed the brown potion a couple of times if he was home or atleast the mandatory first drink in the morning. He has taken to sipping a cup of hot water now. Strange are the ways of the world :-)

A non coffee drinker myself, I am neutral to his coffee habits but we had a whole gallon of fat free milk that he used in the coffee which threatened to go down the sink if I didn't use it before it got outdated. Now, I didn't want to make fat free yogurt with a gallon of milk (I am sure, it would never have been consumed), so I went ahead and made paneer with it. Healthy bhi and tasty bhi. DD says paneer tastes yummy. I am so proud of myself for not wasting that milk. There is about a pound of good quality roasted coffee seeds in the refrigerator and I have no clue what to do with it. I think I will organize a 'coffee over' day in my neighborhood. I will make some nice snacks to go with it, let me know if you are interested :-)

Given DD's affinity to palak paneer, it was a natural choice for me to make the dish today. The curry and the chapatis were done and ready on the table within 45 minutes of me reaching home from work. As the kitchen was engulfed in the flavor of the curry, BH volunteered to help me with pictures('carrots on a stick' is not at all over rated :-)). All in all, family with happy tummies is a good beginning to the work week. So, here is my palak paneer (cottage cheese in spinach gravy) version - curry made in a hurry.

What do you need to make Palak paneer? 
4 cups tightly packed palak or spinach leaves (I used baby spinach)
2 green chilies chopped fine
1 inch piece ginger
1/2 cup yogurt whisked
1/2 cup onion minced or very thinly sliced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbsp cilantro
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tbsp coriander powder
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1 cup paneer cubes
1 Tsp fresh lemon juice

How do you make Palak Paneer? 

• Bring water to bubbling stage in a sauce pan. 
• Add the cleaned palak leaves and push them with a spoon to submerge in water. 

• Boil for 2-3 minutes and as soon the leaves wilt, take it off the heat. 
• Drain the water out and immediately run cold water on the leaves. 
• Let them sit for a couple of minutes and puree in the blender along with chopped cilantro. 
• Heat oil, sizzle cumin.
• Add crushed garlic and ginger and fry for a minute.

• Add minced onion and fry for 3-4 minutes until onion sweats and turns limp
• Add whisked yogurt, coriander powder and salt.
• Let it come to a boil (2-3 minutes)
• Add the pureed mixture and stir it in. 

• Adjust consistency with water and test for salt. 
• Once bubbles start appearing, add the cubed paneer, give a gentle mix and switch off. 

• Add lemon juice before serving.  

Notes: 

• I used fresh, home made paneer and didn't saute them in oil. If you use frozen paneer, saute them in a Tbsp oil until they turn very light brown on both sides, put them in cold water until ready to use. This retains the softness of the paneer. 
• I do not add garam masala or tomato as I feel it spoils the color :-). If you like, you can puree a tomato and add it (reduce yogurt in this case and skip lemon juice to balance the tangyness).

• Use butter instead of oil for a richer taste. Add a Tbsp of cream once you switch off and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving to make it richer. 
• If you love the bright green color of the curry, it is important to follow these steps: 
• Do not cover and cook while boiling spinach. 
• Do not cook for more than 3-4 minutes (you should switch off the stove as soon as the leaves wilt)
• Drain the hot water and run cold water immediately after taking out of stove.
• Plan the pureeing so that it doesn't sit out for long before getting added to the curry. 

Baked Kale crisps - 'guilt' is not the emotion you feel while gorging on this nutritious snacks

The other day when we went out, we took a ferry and went to a charming little island 30 minutes off of downtown. It is a little town in the middle of water (well, I guess that is what they call as islands :-)), hilly roads to walk up and down, a quaint little downtown and beautiful waterfront trails. We saw some boards for bike rentals but unfortunately they were closed on that day. Though it has every potential to be a typical 'touristy' place, I am glad it was not too crowded, mostly just the locals hurrying towards their weekly farmer's market. Yes, that was the highlight, we found ourselves in a small farmer's market lot after a good walk and a very filling panini. I didn't want to purchase a whole lot since we were dependent on public transport but wanted to check out the farmer's market at this new place. Yes, I have this self declared affinity to farmer's markets, for one these are seasonal in most American cities and towns and are open only during the summer months and secondly a visit to the farmer's market invariably is a 'lift me up' on my spirits as I get lost in the memories of the bylanes of Mysore and Bengaluru vegetable markets. And then there is definitely the bonus of bringing home something fresh and locally grown.

So off we went exploring the farmer's market here on the island. The first thing to catch my eye was this gorgeous looking fresh Kale. Now, I love all leafy green vegetables, and I use them in umpteen different ways. Kale is a green on steroids (before I alarm anyone, it was just an expression), it is called 'Queen of greens' for no mean reason. Infact adding a regular dose of Kale in your food has the advantage of cancer protection and lowered cholesterol. If you are a seeker of knowledge, continue reading here for some good information. Since it was not going to be heavy on the back packs, I got a bunch and came home :-). 

I was not sure what I would be making with it when I bought it, I thought may be a good dal or a stir fry or put it in a Huli/sambar. But then I had come across these Kale chips/crisps recipes many times in magazines and online and had also seen a packed bag in our grocery store.  So, I set out to try the new taste. Honestly I didn't have any intention or rather expectation of writing a blog post on Kale chips, there is no recipe really here. But when the first batch came out of the oven, they looked so crispy and crunchy and tasted just like a good chip should - delicious and addictive and convinced me that they did deserve a place on the blog. So here are some last minute (read completely unplanned) pictures to explain the process. As I said before, there is no recipe here so I will try to show you what I did with my pictures and point out the obvious to get the right consistency of the final product.

The only problem with these delicious crisps is that they are not a camera (wo)man's joy and they are not great models for photography. Infact DD said they looked like dried leaves found abundantly under trees during Autumn :-). What can say other than reminding you that looks are deceiving.

How did I make baked Kale crisps?
Pick leaves, wash and wipe thoroughly with no trace of water on the leaves - this is important as any residual water will make the crisps very 'uncrispy' :-) and soggy.

Lay upside down on a cutting board, cut out the middle thick stem and discard. Tear or cut into big pieces, remember it shrinks in size after baking and too small a size will make it burn fast.

Put the leaves in a wide bowl, add salt and freshly ground black pepper on top, drizzle olive oil (just enough to coat the leaves) and work it with your fingers to coat all the leaves uniformly.

Spread them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes in a pre heated oven at 350F.

When you take it of the oven, they look like they are stuck to the sheet, gently run your finger (if you are ok with the hot surface) or use a spoon to give it a little nudge, crackling, crispy chips are ready to eat.

I also made a batch of sweet potato wedges flavored with salt, pepper and some dry oregano. Dinner plate looked more inviting and healthy with these additions :-)

The crisps look deceivingly like the fallen autumn leaves but go ahead and give it a try. You will be bowled over by the distinct flavor of Kale and the crunchiness of this healthy snack.

Notes: 

• 8 minutes per batch was perfect for my oven settings, you may want to check after 7 minutes and determine the best time for your oven settings. The leaves should not turn black. 
• You can add any other flavorings of choice. Sea salt on top would definitely enhance the flavor.